Man describes rescuing boy from Thames - after body found in search for missing girl

A man has described how he rescued a boy from the River Thames - after a body was found in the search for a girl who went missing during the same incident.

George Karnovski says he pulled what he said was an "11-year-old" boy out of the river after he got into difficulty near the Royal Terrace Pier in Gravesend in Kent. He said once he had the child on a buoy, he was "just screaming" as he struggled in the water.

Kent Police and the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) recovered the body of the missing girl at around 11.40am on Saturday. Witnesses suggest she was the boy's younger sister.

Formal identification by the girl's next of kin has taken place, and the death is not being treated as suspicious, police said. Emergency services were called on Friday afternoon after concerns were raised for the two children who had entered the river at nearby Royal Pier Road.

Mr Karnvoski said: "At the same time as pulling him out, I was looking around, like, where is she, where is she? "I'm shouting, saying 'there's one more, there's one more'. I'm looking around, [but] for love nor money, I cannot see the little girl." Mr Karnovski, 37, who is a member of the RAF, had been visiting his family who live in the town.

He said they had been out on a walk when they heard that children were in trouble in the water, which he said had "a strong current". His brother Jack, who lives in the area, said he had seen his wife "scream, and point at the river.

I assumed it was my children. I went running and shouted to my brother".

The pair discovered there was only one life ring, and so only George, who said he had previously had lifeguard training, could enter the water for safety reasons. Jack said that when George jumped in, he "said he never felt the bottom.

We had to run down the jetty because the tide was running up". "The jetty is quite long.

By the time you ran down it, it was deep water," he added. George said the conditions in the water at the time were "tough.